She looked up at me, curiosity in her little wrinkled eyes. “What’d you say to him last night anyway, dear? I never seen no one go from sad to glad so fast. He was a whole different fella when he caught up to us in the lounge.”
“Got his batteries recharged, did he?”
“I’ll say. He was so fired up, he staked out a spot on the dance floor and done the chicken dance until the musicians packed it in.”
“Osmond did the chicken dance … to jazz?”
“He didn’t know what kinda music he was dancin’ to on account of he turned off his hearin’ aids.” She sighed. “Wish I coulda done that. Them polyrhythms kept throwin’ me way off beat.”
I gave her an incredulous look. “You were doing the chicken dance with him?”
“We all was, dear. It was the only way we could escape havin’ to look at them photos of Bernice’s.”
The bus pulled into a parking lot in the center of town, and the minute our driver cut the engine, we grabbed our belongings and poured into the aisle.
“See you back here in three hours,” Rob reminded us. “If you need the comfort station, it’s at the opposite end of the parking lot, so you’ll pass it on your way to the beach. And one word of caution. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT remove any stones from the beach. There’s a statute forbidding it, so have fun, but leave the rocks where they are.”
“You wanna tag along with us to the casino?” Nana asked me as we exited down the stairs.
“I hate to pass up a chance to lose all my money in a slot machine, but I’m off to the beach to find out why this place is supposed to look familiar.”
“You want I should Google it for you?”
“Nope. I want to be surprised.”
I escorted her to the random spot where the gang was assembling, my eyes widening in alarm when I saw Osmond. “Why is Osmond wearing a cervical collar?”
“It’s on account of one of them fancy spin moves he done last night, dear. It accidentally got away from him, so he’s got a crick in his neck this mornin’.”
“Did he seek medical attention?”
“Yup.”
I called up a mental picture of the Renoir’s floor plan. “Do we have an infirmary on board?”
“Nope.”
“So where did he go?”
“Margi’s cabin. She give his head a crank both ways, said, ‘Aha!’ and slapped the collar on ’im.” She gave a little suck on her uppers. “She always leaves plenty of space in her grip for medical supplies.”
I shook my head. Yup. That’s exactly what we needed. Unauthorized medical personnel diagnosing and treating potentially serious geriatric ailments.
“Have all of you pulled up the map of Étretat on your phones?” Tilly called out as we joined everyone on the sidewalk.
Nods. Yups.
“And you’ve located the casino?”
More nods and yups. Excited foot shuffling.
“All right then. Time’s a wastin’. Forwarrrrd … march!”
“Don’t forget,” I cautioned Nana. “If you don’t understand what the locals are saying, just smile. Smiles are a universal language.”